Submitted by pria Fri 04/24/2009
Radiation treatment to be done directly to the ovaries of women suffering from cancer in their reproductive area should be avoided since it can affect the fertility of a person. This was revealed by the recent issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, the official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. Based on study was discovered that radiation therapy to the pelvic region can cause ovarian failure which would result in damage that makes the uterus unable to accommodate the growth of a fetus. With its negative effects to fertility of women, the researchers at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program and the Department of Radiation Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, both in Boston, sought to review the impact of radiation therapy on fertility, pregnancy and neonatal outcomes among female patients and the effectiveness of ovarian transposition, or moving the ovaries out of the field of radiation, as a means of preserving fertility. The study yielded results that women who received abdominal or pelvic radiation had an increased risk of uterine dysfunction that lead to miscarriage, preterm labor, low birth weight and placental abnormalities. The study was also able to determine that women who received low doses of ovarian radiation can suffer early menopause. Furthermore, researchers were also able to discover that ovarian transposition was proven an effective method of reducing the rates of ovarian dysfunction, but even if the ovaries are outside of the field of radiation, scatter dose can cause significant damage. With the ill effects, it offers to women fertility, radiation therapy should be avoided in the ovarian section of women. Women suffering from cancer in their private parts should also be vigilant so that radiation treatment cannot penetrate their ovarian section or they face the chance to suffer from infertility. This medical news should be used as eye opener to women especially those suffering from cancer worldwide to be more vigilant in their cancer treatment especially if wish to undergo radiation treatment so their capability to bore a child would be affected by its radiation. Login to post comments To become a radiation Submitted by jeffreyfrog on Wed, 05/06/2009 – 00:43. To become a radiation oncologist you need to go to medical school. To do that, you need to take all the premedical prerequisites, which includes bio. So you *have* to take biology. If you have time in your schedule and are interested, then certainly go ahead and take nuclear med, but it’s not mandatory. You don’t pick a specialty until the last year of medical school, so you will have another 3 years after undergrad to explore your interest in Radiation oncology.
